Friday Was Mostly A "Chore" Day!

Friday was a bit cooler, but a nice morning to play pickleball and it went fairly well!  But before I went, I made, with Ken's help, and baked a batch of oat bran muffins.  Ken and I are really enjoying these healthy treats compliments of Noela.  She makes these muffins quite often, since Ernie eats about 2 a day!  I was back from pickleball by 10:15 and Ken had Wilbur looking beautiful.  What a clean-up job he did!  He had left with Ernie for a 1 1/2 hour bike ride.

While on their ride, they came upon a small cemetery.  It was an interesting one.  Known as the Southland Trail Cemetery, it was called the Convict Cemetery by the locals.  From around 1910, Florida's leased convict labor system allowed the railroad and naval stores industries to lease inexpensive convict labor crews from area jails.  These laborers worked on railroad lines and turpentine camps.  Conditions at the camps were often cruel and inhuman. Convict laborers endured malnutrition, malaria, exposure, wildfires and beatings, often dying at the hands of "whipping bosses" employed to keep the workers in line.  The majority of leased convict laborers were blacks imprisoned under harsh Jim Crow laws.  The leasing of convicts continued until 1923 when Florida banned the practice.  The Southland Trail Cemetery lies near the site of a turpentine camp.  It served as the camps burial ground and as a cemetery for blacks until its last interment in 1966 when cemeteries were required to be integrated.   Hard to imagine!!!

There are tombstones but no
writing on them!

I headed to the laundry here at the CG and what a very busy place.  I had to wait a little while to get 2 washers, but I enjoyed checking out the CG library. When I got back to Wilbur, Ken and I had lunch inside, because it was a bit chilly to eat out.  I went through my jewelry and got organized for the "garage sale" here in the CG tomorrow from 8 to noon.  Ken did some reading and work on the computer.

By 3:30, we were both tired and decided to take a nap - Ken was able to sleep, but I just rested.  Then we played a game of shuffleboard with Ernie and Noela and the women beat the men by a HUGE margin.  We were good!!!!

Ernie and Noela came over to Wilbur around 6:30 and we ate together, enjoying my white chicken chili.  She provided us with homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  Then the men won Skip-Bo (like usual) and the women won Racko (like usual).  It was a fun evening.